Gravity
by ENTRIKIT
Summary: When the sun beats down and you sweat rivers and machina grease coats your fingers - that’s the best. Rikku-centric.


**Author's Note:** Unofficial fifty-sentence challenge, like the ones on LJ. (They are numbered in Roman Numerals.) If you want to give it a pairing, it's Rikku x life. Rikku-centric. Timeframe spans from Rikku's childhood to the end of Yuna's pilgrimage. Enjoy.

**gravity.**

* * *

**I. Change**

Your father watches you put a machina back together and he wonders when you got to be so smart.

**II. Break**

The medics come tell your father the news, and you ask if he fixes machina, can't he fix mommy?

**III. Full**

Vydran tries to cook dinner, but you always like it better when Keyakku makes pizza; you go to bed satisfied.

**IV. Smile**

When the sun beats down and you sweat rivers and machina grease coats your fingers - that's the best.

**V. Light**

That boy you used to hate because he was such a meanie-head visits you and laughs and says you're cute; you say he looks like an angel.

**VI. Dark**

The angel goes off to fight a war.

**VII. Blue**

You love the desert like life itself, but sometimes you wonder, how blue is the ocean?

**VIII. Dare**

Brother wants to see you find that ocean; it's three days before Vydran finds you on the coast, delirious with thirst, but happy.

**IX. Snap**

Some days, Home isn't enough for you anymore, and you wonder if a part of you is broken.

**X. Travel**

Vydran has a salvage ship now but says no, you aren't old enough, and you say that's too bad 'cause you'll go anyway.

**XI. Water**

The ocean is bluer than anything you've ever seen.

**XII. Earth**

You've forgotten the way sand feels between your fingers; can you go home?

**XIII. Fall**

You and Brother spot an old red airship under the waves, but the lifting chains break and it drifts out of sight.

**XIV. Chances**

You find a boy in the ruins who isn't Al Bhed and think maybe you can prove your race isn't so bad, since you saved him and all.

**XV. Small**

Brother criticizes you for bringing Tidus aboard, and you never thought it was possible to feel so small.

**XVI. White**

Tidus talks about Zanarkand and you try to imagine it, but the picture in your mind is covered with static.

**XVII. Open**

You never thought a non-Al Bhed would be this willing to talk to you.

**XVIII. Edge**

Sin comes, Tidus goes, and you feel monotony waiting in the wings again.

**XIX. Hurt**

When you get back to Home, you're surprised at how much you missed it.

**XX. Dream**

Gippal dies and Tidus disappears and Mom is bloody and - and when you wake up, you cry.

**XXI. Space**

You sign up to help stop summoners from traveling, partly for the cause, partly to get away from Home again.

**XXII. Belief**

The summoner is your cousin, Tidus is her guardian, and for a minute you believe in fate.

**XXIII. Orange**

When Wakka is mad at you, you could swear his hair starts to _glow_.

**XXIV. Yellow**

You steal chocobo feathers from a fiend and tuck them in your pocket; they'll help you move even faster.

**XXV. Near**

Somehow you end up on Bikanel Island again, and you feel Home calling to you.

**XXVI. Long**

Keyakku dies, Home burns, and you realize what a long journey lies ahead.

**XXVII. Plain**

You think Yuna's nice and all, but what does Tidus really see in her besides simplicity?

**XXVIII. Beauty**

When Yuna dances, you almost could fall in love with her too, so you don't blame Tidus anymore.

**XXIX. Drink**

Tidus calls Jecht a useless drunk and you wish he knew his father sober.

**XXX. More**

Standing at the foot of Mt. Gagazet, you pray for more time.

**XXXI. Material**

Everyone's clothes are dirty and smelly and torn, but when you suggest skinning fiends, you get funny looks.

**XXXII. Storm**

The Zanarkand sunset is beautiful, but you wish for thunder and lightening and hail - anything to slow Yuna down.

**XXXIII. Wise**

You wish you could be more like Lulu.

**XXXIV. Soul**

Auron is an Unsent, you find out, and you realize in certain light you can see pyreflies under his skin.

**XXXV. Battle**

Fiend after fiend, closer and closer to Yunalesca, and you feel Yuna losing her battle for calm composure.

**XXXVI. Loss**

All the summoners and guardians who died before you, their memories playing in the pyreflies, and you only think of your mother.

**XXXVII. Quiet**

Yunalesca asks for volunteers to die and become an aeon; you stay silent, because you'll never give up living.

**XXXVIII. Laughter**

Yunalesca dies and everyone is mourning; are you the only one who wants to sing? _She's gone! She's gone! Yunie's still alive!_

**XXXIX. Old**

Yuna is seventeen, you are only fifteen, but your hearts feel as if they're eighty: you have not killed Sin.

**XL. Fact**

The truth is you're scared to defeat Sin; would it mean killing Tidus' dad?

**XLI. Action**

You run around Spira looking for the most powerful weapons - anything to keep you in motion.

**XLII. Sigh**

At night, you know Yuna comes to a decision when you hear her sigh and finally drift to sleep; you're still awake.

**XLIII. Tide**

You rip a hole in Sin and fly through; everyone else hears Seymour laugh, but you hear the ocean.

**XLIV. Night**

You kill Jecht and Tidus cries.

**XLV. Tired**

Sin is dead - shouldn't everyone be happier?

**XLVI. Love**

Mom died, Gippal left, Auron died (again), Tidus faded - who's left to love?

**XLVII. Dead**

Do dreams really die?

**XLVIII. Drums**

There is a parade for the successful guardians, and everyone cries when they see Yuna alive.

**XLIX. Bone**

Sometimes you miss them all so much that your bones hurt.

**L. Free**

Pops pulls that airship out of the sea for you and you smile.


End file.
